Our generation has made dating both easy and hard. It is easy because dating apps made it readily available in just one swipe. Generally, you just swipe left if you’re not interested and swipe right if you like someone. On the other hand, it is also hard because with how easy it has become, these dating apps pose risks of finding love.
Many of us use dating apps without recognizing the hidden dangers that are just below the surface. We frequent social media sites like Facebook or Instagram, which are both connected to our real life. What we fail to realize is that we reveal a lot of ourselves but we can never be sure if the other person is keeping it real too.
For instance, in the upcoming movie Swipe, it discusses the reality and hidden dangers everyone faces when using dating apps. It is a unique film because it doesn’t simply show that dating apps are all “kilig” but also tunes it to reality, that there can also be dangers to it. In the film, the main characters live in apartment complex, where their lives start to unravel through their discreet activities in a social dating app called Swipe. This intriguing dramatic thriller culminates in a shattering climax where deception and paranoia become the common thread to their social media connections.
Social media dating tend to get us fooled because it is easy to do that when you don’t show yourself. Since the basis is mostly our photos and profile, we can design it to be as attractive as possible to get other people to swipe right. We can even use apps to “enhance” our looks – make our skin clear, our hair shiny, and our lips kissable. Hello Photoshop!
Sadly, on dating apps, you can meet someone online who will appear so much different when in person.
Dating apps easily let us miss the right signals because we don’t see the other person up close. Photos can easily lie about one’s age, complexion, and our other flaws. Hence, we get lots of inaccurate signals to go on.
Dating apps also let us waste time chasing someone we don’t want. Typically, on a dating app, when we “match” with another person, we chat with them online for hours that even lead to days of private messaging. Then, with the interest is still there, we talk to them on the phone. Then, when we finally decide to meet them and see that they aren’t who we expected them to be, our interest on them crashes and we realize we just wasted a lot of time for nothing.
It is a risk but some find it worth taking if it leads whatever they are looking for – a simple hookup or a meaningful relationship.
Another risk is that it is easy to miss someone on dating app because we just carelessly swiped left.
But with lots of choices, who cares, right? Another one will just come along in a blink of an eye.
Still our FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is higher that ever even on dating apps. So, we get hooked on it so much. We get eaten alive by technology that we forget the real relationships we can build with the people around us.
However, dating apps are not all bad. There are also success stories in them. There can be an instant where two people who would never have a chance with each other if they simply met in person, got that chance because they unmasked themselves through the dating app.
Some people find it difficult to reveal themselves and a dating app can be an effective channel to bare themselves.
Dating apps are not just “kilig.” They also pose dangers that if we aren’t careful can lead to damages we can never reverse.
On the movie Swipe, we will find out more about the realities of using a dating app and how it can significantly affect, or worse, destroy our lives. We will find out the dark side of social media dating that greatly affected the lives of the characters.
Swipe is a film by Ed Lejano. He is the Festival Director of QCinema International Film Festival, an annual project of the Quezon City Film Development Commission where he also serves as Executive Director. As an independent filmmaker, his directorial credits include QWERTY (Grand Jury Prize, 2012 FDCP National Competition) and Seroks (CinemaOne Originals, 2006).
Swipe will hit theaters on February 1, 2017.
To know more about the movie, https://swipe.ph/. Follow them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pg/swipethemovie/). Check out their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRnxNNcGdqsw0hl5h0KNkyQ).
Will you swipe left or swipe right?
